Diamond Jacks On line casino in Bossier Metropolis, La., is as soon as once more set to be offered.
Diamond Jacks has sat vacant and deteriorating since March 2020. The Cordish Corporations, which operates casinos in Pennsylvania and Maryland, needs to buy the shuttered riverboat and provides the property new life via an intensive overhaul. (Picture: KSLA)
Lower than a 12 months after Mississippi-based Basis Gaming agreed to amass the industrial riverboat that’s sat vacant since March 2020, Basis has now reached a tentative settlement to promote the property. The customer is Baltimore-based Cordish Corporations, which operates Dwell!-branded casinos in Maryland and Pennsylvania.
Peninsula Pacific Leisure (P2E), a California gaming and hospitality agency, completely shuttered Diamond Jacks in the course of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The corporate, which has since been acquired by Churchill Downs, Inc., sought to relocate its Louisiana gaming license to a extra enticing market.
After voters in St. Tammany Parish rejected P2E’s efforts to construct a brand new on line casino in Slidell, P2E was compelled to reopen Diamond Jacks, promote the property, or give up its gaming privilege.
Basis got here to P2E’s rescue by agreeing in Might 2022 to purchase the vacant former riverboat for an undisclosed sum. Basis instructed the Louisiana Gaming Management Board (LGCB) in December that it will make investments $200 million to renovate the Diamond Jacks resort and relocate the on line casino from the deteriorating riverboat to a brand new above-land on line casino area.
Delay Value It
LGCB regulators have been initially happy to be taught of Basis’s curiosity in Diamond Jacks, as the corporate has a confirmed observe report of renovating distressed riverboats.
“This can be a day we’ve been ready for a very long time. Basis has a formidable plan,” LGCB Chair Ronnie Johns mentioned in December.
Throughout a particular LGCB assembly on Monday, Basis revealed its hopes of promoting Diamond Jacks to Cordish. Basis officers mentioned Cordish’s plan is definitely extra intensive and dear than its personal.
Basis had deliberate to have its $200 million overhaul accomplished in December 2024. Promoting Diamond Jacks to Cordish will end in a postponement of the on line casino’s opening, as Cordish will need to do its personal due diligence because it formulates its ultimate renovation blueprint.
It’s going to set the mission again a number of months, however it’ll significantly improve it,” Johns instructed the Shreveport Instances following Tuesday’s board assembly. “I’m excited concerning the new developments.”
The brand new Diamond Jacks is poised to grow to be the primary land-based on line casino in Bossier Metropolis. The native Shreveport/Bossier Metropolis gaming market moreover contains Bally’s, Boomtown, Horseshoe, Margaritaville, and Sam’s City casinos.
Presentation Forthcoming
The LGCB motioned to permit Basis to proceed with its settlement to promote Diamond Jacks to Cordish. The state gaming commissioners mentioned Cordish will current its redevelopment plans to the board throughout their subsequent assembly, set for April 17.
At the moment, further particulars on what Cordish has in retailer for the property will grow to be public.
To On line casino.org’s data, Cordish has by no means purchased and redeveloped a on line casino. The corporate’s two most essential gaming belongings, Dwell! On line casino Lodge Maryland in Hanover and Dwell! On line casino Lodge Philadelphia have been each new, from-the-ground-up builds.
Cordish’s Dwell! On line casino Pittsburgh, a so-called “mini-casino” that’s truly in Westmoreland, concerned the corporate reconfiguring a former Bon-Ton division retailer for gaming operations.
